First, the rosebush outside the prison; in the first chapter, it is used as a symbol of hope, or maybe a symbol of redemption. It represents a glimmer of happiness outside the grim, ugly walls and heavy oaken door of the prison. Later in the book, when asked of where she came by the governor, Pearl says she was “plucked … off the bush of wild roses that grew by the prison door…”, as if the bush represented her mother’s only salvation from the harsh prison, or even a physical manifestation of Hester’s love for her daughter. This answer to this question strongly resembles Hester’s openly defiant stature when asked who the father of her baby was during the first scaffold scene.

Perhaps the most complex symbol in the book is the most obvious and prevalent one, the

A third symbol Hawthorne uses in The Scarlet Letter is Pearl, Hester’s daughter. She is her mothers pride, salvation, integrity, and devotion. Pearl’s personality is a direct reflection of her meaning to Hester. Pearl is, oddly enough, the reason her mother is put in the situation she is put in. Even Pearl’s name carries significance; meaning “…came of great price”. She saves her mother from the governor’s sister, who offered Hester an invitation into the forest to practice witchcraft and sign on with “The Dark One”. Hester willingly admits, had Pearl been taken away from her as the magistrates wished, she would gladly go into the forest and sign on with the devil.

books namesake, The Scarlet Letter itself. At its first entrance, the letter is used as a symbol of shame, or grief. The magistrates of the town have placed the letter on Hester’s breast as a way to let everyone in the town know of her adulterous act. It is meant to be a mark of shame, and for many years after her first stand on the scaffold, it is viewed as one. However, later in the story, the letter isn’t viewed as a mark of shame at all; instead,

Some topics in this essay:
Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Boston Hester, Hester Pearl, Hester Satan, Pearl Hester’s, One” Hester, Chillingsworth Hester’s, Finally Hawthorne, scarlet letter, father baby, mark shame, people symbols, represent evil, salvation integrity,